June 2006 Odd Wisconsin
In the 1830s, a giant named Pierre Pauquette traded with the Ho-Chunk at the portage on the Wisconsin River. At six-foot two and 240 pounds, Pauquette was famous for his strength. His thighs were as thick as most men's waists, he could carry an 800-pound barrel of lead, and more than once he lifted a horse clear off the ground....
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Posted in Curiosities on June 29, 2006
According to the U.S. Senate's history site, the first and only father and son to serve in the Senate at the same time were Henry Dodge of Wisconsin and his son Augustus Caesar Dodge of Iowa. The elder Dodge represented Wisconsin in the Senate from 1848 to 1857. When he arrived in Washington, he joined his son, who was already...
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Posted in Odd Lives on June 25, 2006
The Brewers once scored 22 runs in a single game (in Toronto, on Aug. 28, 1992), and they came close to matching that record a few weeks ago by trouncing the Cubs 16-2. But those are nothing compared to the 61-12 pummeling that the Beloit Olympians gave the Milwaukee Cream Citys back in '67 -- 1867, that is. Baseball was...
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Posted in Curiosities on June 22, 2006
The desire to share the happiness found in their own particular faith brought many religious people to Wisconsin. The first was Fr. Rene Menard (1605-1661) who came here in 1661 after Iroquois attacks drove his small flock of Huron converts 1,000 miles west from the St. Lawrence Valley. Setting out from Lake Superior, Menard hiked overland across the Upper Penninsula...
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Posted in Curiosities on June 19, 2006
Are you ready to pack up the car and head out on a summer vacation? Whether it's a grand cross-country journey or just a quick trip up north, this is a good time to reflect on how we got from horse-drawn wagons like this one to comfortable cars like this one. Later this month we'll celebrate the 50th anniversary of...
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Posted in Curiosities on June 11, 2006
That's the headline of a Wisconsin State Journal editorial from 1898, when a seemingly noble military intervention spawned a wave of blind, unthinking nationalism, and the U.S. quickly became embroiled in a messy foreign occupation with a Wisconsin soldier in charge. When the Spanish government set up concentration camps in 1896 to quash a rebellion in Cuba, thousands of the...
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Posted in Bizarre Events on June 6, 2006
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the first AIDS diagnosis, a gruesome fact but one which, like every other, has a historical context. Epidemics have swept through human communities for about 10,000 years, and Wisconsin has had its share. European diseases probably reached Wisconsin before European explorers themselves. In the fifty years following Hernando de Soto's invasion of the lower...
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Posted in Curiosities on June 4, 2006
Yesterday's Odd Wisconsin column in the Wisconsin State Journal highlighted the anniversary of a chance meeting in Beaver Dam out of which grew The Gideons International. More than a dozen readers immediately protested that the service group actually began in Boscobel, where a previous meeting of the founders is commemorated in a historical marker. Where did The Gideons really begin?...
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Posted in Bizarre Events on June 1, 2006
Did You Know?
The Wisconsin Historical Museum is currently featuring Odd Wisconsin objects in the latest exhibit: Odd Wisconsin. And don't miss the Odd Wisconsin book by author Erika Janik published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
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